Tom Hanks

Some Lesser Known Facts About Tom Hanks

• Does Tom Hanks smoke?: Yes

• Does Tom Hanks drink alcohol?: Yes

  

• He was just 4 when his parents got divorced. Jim was raised by his mother while Tom, Larry, and Sandra were brought up by his father.

  

• In his childhood, his family shifted homes a lot but then eventually settled in Oakland.

• He migrated to California State University, Sacramento after getting enrolled at Chabot College in Hayward, California to pursue acting.

  

• In 1977, he got an internship offer in Lakewood, Ohio from the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival. He quit his studies and accepted the offer.

• In 1978, he won Award for the Best Actor award for his performance as ‘Proteus’ in Shakespeare’s ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’ in the Cleveland Critics Circle.

• In 1979, he moved to New York with a dream of performing at Broadway theatre.

  

• He made his on-screen debut with a low-budget horror movie; He Knows You’re Alone.

• In 1982, he guest starred on the TV Show Happy Days. Ron Howard, his co-star in the TV show, was impressed with him and offered him to star in a supporting role in the comic film, Splash. The movie became a great hit and Tom came into the limelight.

• In 1988, he starred in the movie ‘Big;’ essaying the role of a 13-year-old boy trapped in a 35-year-old man’s body. The movie was a huge hit, and his performance was lauded by everyone.

• In 1993, he made his career’s breakthrough with the movie Philadelphia. He won the Academy Award for the Best Actor for the movie.

• In 1994, he won his second Oscar for the role of Forest Gump in the movie Forest Gump.

• In 1998, he was nominated for an Oscar for the fourth time for the movie, Saving Private Ryan. His performance in the movie won him fans all over the world.

• In 2006, he teamed up with Ron Howard in the Dan Brown’s novel’s adaption, The Da Vinci Code. His character, Robert Langdon became very popular. He went on to play the character in two more movies, Angels and Demons, and Inferno.
  

• In 2008, he co-produced the film, The Great Buck Howard where he was seen sharing the screen with his son, Colin Hanks.

• In 2008, he uploaded a video on his MySpace account; showing his support for the then Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama.

• He has also lent his voice for the animated character, Woody in the Toy Story movie series.

• In the 2016 Presidential elections, he endorsed Hillary Clinton.

• In 2016, he portrayed the role of Sully in the movie titled ‘Sully.’ The movie was a biographical drama on a pilot who safely landed a flight on a river to save the lives of the passengers on the airplane.

• Hank is a supporter of NASA’s manned space program. In an interview, he revealed that he initially wanted to be an astronaut.

• In 2017, he published his book, Uncommon Type; inspired by his typewriter collection.

  

• He is a patient of Type 2 diabetes.

• He has the Asteroid 12818 Tomhanks, named after him.

• Tom is a big supporter of environmental causes, same-sex marriage, and alternative fuels.

• On March 12, 2020, he revealed that he and wife Rita Wilson were tested positive for the new Coronavirus in Australia. Hanks and Rita, both 63, had been on the Gold Coast, where Tom was working on a film about the life of Elvis Presley. He wrote on Instagram,
  

  We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that come and went. Slight fevers too. “To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive.”